Oral Presentation and Report

ENGL 2122

Janssen

This assignment will require you to choose a poet and poem from the list below and give a 6-8 minute presentation. There are 2 essential parts to the presentation.

1)Introduce the class to the poet you have chosen. This shouldn’t take more than half of your time, so you just need to provide a brief introduction to the poet, which should include literary era with which the writer is associated and some essential facts regarding his/her relevance and significance in literary history. The material you collect for this section should be limited to one typed page. This should include citation information. You MUST cite all sources used. The best way to accomplish this is to summarize and/or paraphrase materials, and include citations at the bottom of the page under the heading “References.”

2)The second page will consist of your report on the poem. Instructions for poem reports are included on page 2 below.

Both of these pages will be due on the day that you present. You will need to send me a copy of both pages. I will be distributing these pages to the class as they come in, and the purpose of these materials will be to serve as a study guide for the final exam at the end of the semester. There will be a section of the final that is devoted exclusively to the content of these presentations. For full credit for this assignment, both the presentation and the study guide need to be completed on time.

January 21 is the deadline for choosing your poet/poem. Make your selection from the list provided below on page 3. If you don’t have a preference, I will choose one for you. Poets are up for grabs on a first come/first served basis. We will aim to start these presentations mid-February. After January 21, I will create and distribute a schedule. We will aim to do one or two presentations per class period. It should go without saying that you must be present in order to present, but know that if you are not in class for the day you are scheduled, it may not be possible to reschedule.

As you are preparing materials for your presentation, do not hesitate to schedule a conference with me for assistance and feedback. The poem report especially may prove challenging for you. It is a critical reading exercise that trains you to analyze the words on the page in some very specific and detailed ways, so if you need help, well, that’s how I earn my living, and I will be happy to assist.

Instructions for Poem Reports

The report on your assigned poem should accompany your biographical page on the poet. It consists of a set of exercises that will train you to notice features of a poem that contribute to any sound interpretation (that is, one that can be supported by specific evidence).

Your reports should be limited to one typed, single-spaced page.

1)Give title of poem and its author.

2)List five words you looked up in the Oxford English Dictionary. Write down all definitions that might pertain to the poem in some way. Do not just copy the first definition. I will be checking to see that you actually read the whole entry. Points will be taken off if you miss significant connotations. Understanding connotation and studying etymology are crucial skills for literary study.

3)Name the meter and/or verse form (blank verse, heroic couplets, anapestic tetrameter, etc.). Learning to recognize poetic meter and some fixed forms is an important starting point for understanding the relationship between form and content. At first, this may prove difficult, especially if you have not had a lot of practice studying poetry. As with all things, though, with practice it will get easier. Throughout the semester I will introduce you to formal lingo, and you should always feel free to ask me if you get stumped and need some help with this. An understanding of poetic meter and form will help to reinforce the fact that poetry is a musical language.

4)Briefly describe something you noticed about the technique of the poem (patterns of imagery, figures of speech, etc.). In the work of literary interpretation, how the work means is as important as what it means. If you notice five references to flowers, for instance, or guns, or cats, or whatever, first cite them briefly and then comment on how they might be related to other patterns of meaning in the poem.

5)In a short paragraph, relate this poem to another work – another poem (assigned in this class or not), or perhaps a movie, a song, or a story. Give specific evidence for the link that you see; “it just reminds me” is not good enough. The following is an example of what not to do: “The poem reminds me of when I took my sweetie on a picnic, and there were clouds rolling by and birds chirping sweetly.” Of course, poetry should help us to make connections with our own lives and generate personal discovery. This question, however, trains you to develop the ability to apply your knowledge of one work to another, an important critical skill called intertextuality.

6)Formulate one question about the relation between form and content in the poem that will generate discussion. Choose a question that can be answered by careful study of the poem alone, and which is also debatable. Questions asking for specific information foreclose discussion; asking about the number of “s” sounds, for instance, will not get you very far. Posing a question about the relationship between the poem’s meaning and its “s” sounds, however, might. You don’t have to be able to answer this question, but as you become a more experienced critical reader you will recognize that learning to ask fruitful questions is the crucial skill.

Poets and Poems

Anonymous, “Sir Patrick Spens” (36-37)

Anonymous, “The Daemon Lover” (37-39)

Anna Letitia Barbauld, “A Summer Evening’s Meditation” (43-45)

Charlotte Smith, “The Swallow” (57-59)

Mary Robinson, “The Poor Singing Dame” (81-82)

William Cowper, “The Negro’s Complaint” (96-97)

Robert Burns, “Holy Willie’s Prayer” (168-171)

Dorothy Wordsworth, “Grasmere – A Fragment” (415-417)

Sir Walter Scott, “The Lay of the Last Minstrel” (420-422)

John Clare, “Pastoral Poesy” (872-875)

Felicia Dorothea Hemans, “Indian Woman’s Death Song” (894-895)

Letitia Elizabeth Landon, “Lines of Life” (1000-1002)

Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “The Cry of the Children” (1124-1128)

Emily Brönte, “The Prisoner: A Fragment” (1132-1134)

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, “The Blessed Damozel” (1472-1476)

Algernon Charles Swinburne, “Hymn to Proserpine” (1526-1529)

Gerard Manley Hopkins, “Duns Scotus’s Oxford” (1552-1553)

Rudyard Kipling, “The White Man’s Burden” (1880-1883)

Ernest Dowson, “Cynara” (1883-1884)

A.E. Housman, “Terrence, This is Stupid Stuff” (2014-2015)

Wilfred Owen, “Dulce Et Decorum Est” (2037)

May Wedderburn Cannan, “Rouen” (2043-2044)

D.H. Lawrence, “Snake” (2514-2516)

Stevie Smith, “Thoughts About the Person from Porlock” (2602-2603)

W.H. Auden, “The Unknown Citizen” (2688)

Dylan Thomas, “Fern Hill” (2702-2703)

Henry Reed, “Naming of Parts” (2715)

Claude McKay, “Old England” (2722)

Wole Soyinka, “Telephone Conversation” (2736)

M. Nourbese Philip, “Discourse on the Logic of Language” (2742-2745)

Carol Ann Duffy, “Mrs Lazarus” (1044-1045)

Sample Poem Report

1)Thomas Gray, "Ode on the Death of a Favorite Cat"

2) ode (Gk): a) the songs of a chorus in a Greek play

b) a lyrical poem, often in the form of an address; generally dignified or exalted in subject, feeling ,and style

azure (F):a ) a deep blue like the cloudless sky

b) blue color in a coat of arms

nymph( F):one of a numerous class of semi-divine beings imagined as beautiful maidens inhabiting the sea, rivers, mountains, hills, woods or trees and frequently introduced by the poets as attendants of a superior deity.

genii (L): a) plural of genie

b) genie is derived from the Latin root genius with reference to classical pagan belief : The tutelary god or attendant spirit allotted to every person at his birth, to govern his fortunes and determine his character and finally to conduct him out of this world.

c) one's appetite.

Tyrian (L): derived from root noun Tyre: of or belonging to, native of, or made in Tyre, an important center of commerce in the ancient Mediterranean

3)iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter. Each stanza of the poem contains six lines with an aabccb rhyme scheme.

4)There are several mythological and supernatural references in the poem: nymphs,

Nereids, Malignant Fate, genii. These references give the cat, the fish, and even the tub a level of importance that they would not have otherwise. Normally you would not think that Malignant Fate would care one way or another about what happens to a cat, but a cat is not usually considered "semi-divine" either,

5)"Old King" by Neil Young:

I had a dog and his name was King

I told the dog about everything

There in my pickup King and I

Then one day he came up and died

This song reminds me of Gray's poem because the song's content is so similar and because it is sad but also kind of a funny song too.

6) Given the above definition, why is this poem called an "ode”?